It’s often the first question someone asks about a school: Is it accredited?

The state’s ratings mark a school, for better or worse, and are designed to help families and communities know whether a school’s meeting its obligations to students.

In 2018, new standards of accreditation went into effect. A curious reader wanted to know what these changes mean for schools in Hampton Roads, and asked The Virginian-Pilot as part of its ongoing “Glad you Asked” feature, where we invite readers to submit questions to check out.

The new ratings system is similar to the old one— schools can earn either full or partial marks — but is designed to give more details about the areas most in need of improvement. It’s also designed to give schools credit for helping students improve even if they don’t yet meet the benchmarks.

The state Board of Education wanted to draw attention to achievement gaps and inequities within a school so that they can be addressed, State Superintendent James Lane said earlier in the year.

Often, one group of students performs at a high level and skews the averages. That can mask other groups of students who aren’t doing as well.

“It’s about shining a flashlight,” Lane said.

Besides drawing attention to achievement gaps, the new standards reward improvement and factor in absenteeism for the first time. That puts new pressure on schools to make sure students show up — a factor that’s not always in their control — but the change to reward improvement should relieve some of the testing pressure that students, parents and teachers have complained about in recent years.

How the ratings are calculated

Before 2018, there were 10 different ratings a school could earn, including seven variations of partial accreditation. Now, there are just three: accredited, accredited with conditions or accreditation denied.

Whether a school is accredited or accredited with conditions depends on test results, achievement gaps between students and absenteeism. At the high school level, graduation and dropout rates also count.

Starting in the 2021-22 school year, a measure called “college, career and civic readiness” will affect high schools’ ratings.

In each of those measures, schools can perform at level one, two or three. Level one is the best, meaning student performance meets or exceeds standards. Level three means student performance is significantly below the benchmark or has failed to meet it over a period of time.

Here are the measures that count towards accreditation at every level:

Overall performance and growth in English reading and writing;

Overall performance and growth in math;

Overall performance in science;

Gaps between student groups in English;

Gaps between student groups in math;

Absenteeism.

If a school hits level one or two in every measure, it will be accredited. If any measure is at level three, the school will be accredited with conditions. A school will be denied accreditation if they don’t adopt or implement corrective actions to improve level three areas.

Why absenteeism?

Students are chronically absent when they miss 10 percent or more of the school year — essentially two or more days a month. A student who misses school is more likely to struggle academically and is at risk of dropping out, hence the state’s focus on getting kids to class.

Whether students’ absences are excused or not doesn’t matter. That means suspensions and expulsions count towards the percentage of students who are considered chronically absent.

Because of this, expect to see Hampton Roads schools make more of an effort to track down students missing school, through letters, home visits and parent-teacher conferences. Some schools in Portsmouth, for instance, have created incentives where students and families can get prizes for perfect attendance.

How does improvement factor in?

In the past, schools only got credit for students who passed tests. Those aren’t a perfect measure of student performance — they just show how well a student performed on one day out of an entire school year.

Now, schools get credit for students who don’t pass but show improvement.

Here’s how it works:

Imagine a class of 10 fourth-graders. Six students pass their reading tests. Of the four who don’t pass, two show improvement over third grade. Another student is an English language learner who showed improvement, too. Only one of the four students didn’t show any progress at all.

Under the new system, the pass rate in that class is 90 percent, compared to 60 percent under the old system. The state Board of Education believes this will encourage schools to pay attention to improving outcomes for all students.

Newport News Schools will be adding visual arts, theater and STEM programs to their elementary and middle school gifted programs.

Newport News Schools will be adding visual arts, theater and STEM programs to their elementary and middle school gifted programs.

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Newport News Schools will be adding visual arts, theater and STEM programs to their elementary and middle school gifted programs.

Newport News Schools will be adding visual arts, theater and STEM programs to their elementary and middle school gifted programs.

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Students from the Newport News middle and high schools designed and built wind turbines with provided supplies over two hour time period for the Engineering and Design Challenge STEM competition Friday January 11, 2019.

Students from the Newport News middle and high schools designed and built wind turbines with provided supplies over two hour time period for the Engineering and Design Challenge STEM competition Friday January 11, 2019.

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The 2019 senior class of An Achievable Dream High School cheer as they find out they are receiving free Chromebook computers courtesy of Cox Communications Tuesday December 18, 2018. The students were surprised by Cox vice-president of customer care, Bruce Crooks, after being called into what they thought was a STEM assembly.

The 2019 senior class of An Achievable Dream High School cheer as they find out they are receiving free Chromebook computers courtesy of Cox Communications Tuesday December 18, 2018. The students were surprised by Cox vice-president of customer care, Bruce Crooks, after being called into what they thought was a STEM assembly.

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This is the new SCOT Center near the Newport News airport. When completed it will have the bus maintenance and parking, plant services and warehousing in one location along Siemens Way.

This is the new SCOT Center near the Newport News airport. When completed it will have the bus maintenance and parking, plant services and warehousing in one location along Siemens Way.

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Senator Tim Kaine and Congressman Bobby Scott toured Tidewater Community College as the school celebrated their Skilled Trades program on Monday, December 10, 2018.

Senator Tim Kaine and Congressman Bobby Scott toured Tidewater Community College as the school celebrated their Skilled Trades program on Monday, December 10, 2018.